Obituaries: A look back at those we bid farewell to in 2014

A LOOK back at those who left us in 2014

This year we lost Richard Attenborough, Tony Benn and Philip Seymour Hoffman

JANUARY

Roger Lloyd Pack, 69 (February 8, 1944 – January 15, 2014)

Roger Lloyd Pack was known and loved by millions of sitcom fans for his role as Colin Ball, aka Trigger, the dimwitted Peckham road sweeper in Only Fools And Horses.

He may have played stupid with aplomb but he was an intelligent and engaged man, passionate about a variety of political and charitable courses.

Born in London, he trained at Rada and joined the Royal Shakespeare Company before making his television debut in an episode of The Avengers in 1965.

Lloyd Pack went on to appear in a variety of established series as well as the Peter Greenaway film The Cook, The Thief, His Wife And Her Lover, while continuing to work in the theatre.

Having become a household name in Only Fools... he went on to appear in another much-loved sitcom, The Vicar Of Dibley, as farmer Owen Newitt alongside Dawn French and more recently in Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire and Doctor Who and won critical acclaim in two Shakespearean productions at the Globe.

He was married twice with a daughter and three sons, all of whom survived him after his death at 69 from pancreatic cancer.

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Roger Lloyd Pack, 69 (February 8, 1944 – January 15, 2014)

[Roger Lloyd Pack] may have played stupid with aplomb but he was an intelligent and engaged man, passionate about a variety of political and charitable courses.

Patrick Heron, 61, Irish author, January 2

Elizabeth Jane Howard, 90, English novelist, January 2

Phil Everly, 74, American singer/songwriter, younger of the Everly Brothers, January 3

Sir Michael Neubert, 80, MP for Romford from 1974 to 1997, January 3

Alicia Rhett, 98, American actress best known for playing India Wilkes in Gone With The Wind, January 3

Andy Holden, 65, runner who represented Britain at the 1972 Olympics, January 4

Terry Biddlecombe, 72, three times National Hunt champion jockey, January 5

Paul Goggins, 61, Labour MP for Wythenshawe and Sale East from 1997, January 7

John Horsley, 93, actor best known as Doc Morrissey in The Fall And Rise Of Reginald Perrin, January 12

Bobby Collins, 82, footballer, played for Celtic, Everton and Leeds and Scotland, January 13

Bert Williams, 93, footballer, played for Wolverhampton Wanderers and England, January 19

Pete Seeger, 94, American folk singer and songwriter whose hits included Turn! Turn! Turn! and If I Had a Hammer, January 27

Colonel Meow, aged two, American Himalayan-Persian cat who held the Guinness World Record for longest fur, January 29

Anna Gordy Gaye, 92, American songwriter and record executive, older sister of Motown founder Berry Gordy and first wife of Marvin Gaye, January 31

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Philip Seymour Hoffman, 46 (July 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014)

FEBRUARY

Philip Seymour Hoffman, 46 (July 23, 1967 – February 2, 2014)

Born in Fairport, New York, Philip Seymour Hoffman’s early ambitions to be a wrestler were thwarted by a neck injury.

Sport’s loss was film and theatre’s gain and he is remembered as one of the finest actors of his generation, dying of a drugs overdose at the age of 46.

He was adept at playing such oddballs and eccentrics as infatuated boom operator Scotty in Boogie Nights or Brandt, sycophantic flunkey to the Coen brothers’ titular Big Lebowski but could also be called upon to bring gravitas to Hollywood blockbusters as in his turn as a villain in Mission Impossible 3 or his role in the recent Hunger Games films.

He was nominated three times for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar (Charlie Wilson’s War, Doubt and The Master) and won Best Actor in 2005 for Capote.

He had three children with his long-term partner Mimi O’Donnell, a costume designer.

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Eugenio Corti, 93, Italian author of The Red Horse, a novel about his countrymen’s wartime experiences, February 4

Samantha Juste, 69, “disc girl” on Top Of The Pops in 1960s and former wife of Monkees drummer Micky Dolenz, February 5

Christopher Barry, 88, British television director who worked on the original series of Doctor Who, February 7

Shirley Temple, 85, Hollywood actress, dancer and singer, February 10

Sid Caesar, 91, American comedian, February 12

John Henson, 48, American puppeteer son of Muppets creator Jim Henson, February 14

Roy Oxlade, 85, painter, February 15

Jimmy Murakami, 80, animator of Raymond Briggs adaptations When The Wind Blows and The Snowman, February 16

Bob Casale, 61, guitarist and keyboard player for new wave band Devo, February 17

Maria Von Trapp, 99, last of the Von Trapp children as portrayed in The Sound Of Music, February 18

Harold Ramis, 69, American actor and director of Ghostbusters and Groundhog Day, February 24

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Tony Benn, 88 (April 3, 1925 – March 14, 2014)

MARCH

Tony Benn, 88 (April 3, 1925 – March 14, 2014)

In 2001 when Tony Benn quit as an MP after nearly half a century he insisted he wanted to spend “more time on politics”.

It was a typical comment from Benn who could never be one of the herd.

Equally typical, when he left the Labour Party, he became more Left-wing.

Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn was born to the Liberal, then later Labour MP William Wedgwood Benn and Margaret, a theologian and feminist.

An MP for 47 years and a Cabinet member under Harold Wilson and James Callaghan in the 1960s and 1970s, Benn held, among other roles, Postmaster General and, from 1971 to 1972, he was chairman of the Labour Party.

He inherited a peerage when his father died.

This led him to campaign to enable people to renounce hereditary peerages and resulted in the Peerage Act 1963.

Pipe-smoking Benn was a meticulous diarist and had several volumes of his observations published and broadcast.

He and his wife Caroline, who died in 2000, had four children.

Although often engaged in bitter political battles in the Commons he was noted as one of the most courteous of politicians and men, declaring: “This idea that politics is all about charisma and spin is rubbish. It is trust that matters.”

Ian McIntyre, 82, radio broadcaster and executive (BBC Radio 3, BBC Radio 4), April 19

Bob Hoskins, 71, actor (The Long Good Friday; Who Framed Roger Rabbit), April 29

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Maya Angelou, 86 (April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014)

MAY

Maya Angelou, 86 (April 4, 1928 – May 28, 2014)

Maya Angelou became famous for her memoir I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings published in 1969, which unflichingly told the tale of the racial discrimination she faced growing up in Arkansas and California.

She was born in St Louis, Missouri, christened Marguerite Annie Johnson and it was her brother Bailey who called her Maya.

When her parents split up the two of them were sent to live with her paternal grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas which at the time was still segregated.

A traumatic childhood including rape by her mother’s boyfriend and his subsequent murder left her unable to speak for five years.

Instead Angelou read and discovered a love of the written word, which she later learned to read out loud.

She supported herself with a series of jobs including tram conductor, cook, nightclub singer and dancer, lived with her civil rights activist partner in Egypt and Ghana and aided Martin Luther King before becoming a writer and publishing several volumes of memoirs and poetry.

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Eli Woods, 91, comedian and variety performer, May 1

Bobby Gregg, 78, American drummer who played on records by Bob Dylan and Simon And Garfunkel, May 3

Malcolm Glazer, 85, American businessman and owner of Manchester United, May 28

Lady Soames, 91, Winston Churchill’s daughter, May 31

Redferns

Rik Mayall, 56 (March 7, 1958 – June 9, 2014)

JUNE

Rik Mayall, 56 (March 7, 1958 – June 9, 2014)

Rik Mayall’s breakthrough as uptight student Rick in BBC comedy The Young Ones was just the first in a series of memorable grotesques he played to fabulous comic effect.

It was followed by Bottom’s anarchic loser Richie, alongside Adrian Edmonson’s Eddie, unctuous Tory MP Alan B’Stard and sexually voracious Lord Flashheart in Blackadder, all turns which won him legions of fans.

He was also an accomplished actor, appearing on stage in productions of plays by Beckett and Gogol.

Mayall’s death this year at 56 was his second having been “technically dead” for five days after a quad bike accident in 1998 but he recovered well and spoke often in interviews of how the experience made him profoundly appreciative of life.

Born in Essex he studied at Manchester University where he met long-term collaborator Edmondson.

The pair became part of the 1980s alternative comedy scene before making their names on television.

He is survived by his wife Barbara Robbin, a make-up artist, and their three children.

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Alexander Shulgin, 88, American chemist famous for introducing psychologists to MDMA, June 2

Eric Hill, 86, author and illustrator of the Spot The Dog books, June 6

With her babyish voice and coquettish charm Dora Bryan was the perfect comic actress.

Born in Lancashire her career began in pantomime.

As a child performer she could regularly be seen in the West End and during the Second World War she joined Ensa (Entertainments National Service Association) and entertained troops in Italy.

Her fi lm career saw her cast as a woman of loose morals in such films as The Green Man (1956) and Carry On Sergeant (1958).

In 1961 she won a best actress Bafta for her role in the film version of Shelagh Delaney’s book A Taste Of Honey.

As well as her film work she would regularly appear in musicals and had turns in the television show Dinner Ladies before joining the BBC Comedy series Last Of The Summer Wine as Aunt Roz Utterthwaite.

Her ability to perform was curtailed, however, in 2005, when she struggled to memorise her lines.

Glenn Cornick, 67, bass player and founding member of Jethro Tull, August 28

Bill Kerr, 92, actor (Hancock’s Half Hour), August 28

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The Rev Ian Paisley, 88 (April 6, 1926 – September 12, 2014)

SEPTEMBER

The Rev Ian Paisley, 88 (April 6, 1926 – September 12, 2014)

The son of a Baptist minister, Ian Paisley grew up in Ballymena, County Antrim.

He felt an early calling to the church and went on to set up his Free Presbyterian Church.

Always political he condemned the then prime minister of Northern Ireland, Terence O’Neill, for trying to establish a closer relationship with Eire.

He organised marches which sparked riots and was labelled a troublemaker but inspired fierce loyalty among his followers.

He denounced violence but was accused of inciting it in others with his passionate speeches.

Paisley became MP for North Antrim in 1970 and formed the Democratic Unionist Party in 1971.

During the 1980s he opposed the Anglo-Irish Agreement but eventually softened his stance and his true legacy was the 2007 power-sharing deal with Sinn Fein, under which he served as First Minster in devolved parliament at Stormont with Martin McGuinness, the former IRA commander he had formerly condemned as a murderer, as his deputy.

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Joan Rivers, 81, acerbic American comedian, September 4

David Wynne, sculptor with many public works, September 4

David Lomax, 76, TV reporter for Panorama, September 5

Richard Kiel, 74, the actor best known for playing the steel-toothed villain Jaws in two Bond films, September 10

John Gustafson, 72, singer and bassist with various bands including The Big Three and Roxy Music, September 11

Donald Sinden, 90, actor at home in Shakespeare but best known for his roles in sitcoms such as Two’s Company, September 12

John Bardon, 75, actor known for his role as Jim Branning in EastEnders, September 12

Philip Somerville, 84, milliner who made hats for the Queen, September 14

Dame Peggy Fenner, 91, former Conservative MP, September 15

John Moat, 78, poet and founder of the Arvon Foundation residential writing courses, September 16

Rezso Gallai, 110, Hungarian supercentenarian and the oldest man in Europe, September 25

Dorothy Tyler, 94, Olympic silver medallist in the high jump at the 1936 and 1948 Olympics (as Dorothy Odam), September 25

Mary Cadogan, 86, literary historian, author of You’re A Brick, Angela! a history of girl’s fiction, September 27

Sheila Tracy, 80, a musician and the presenter of the BBC’s Big Band Special, September 30

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Alvin Stardust, 72 (September 27, 1942 – October 23, 2014)

OCTOBER

Alvin Stardust, 72 (September 27, 1942 – October 23, 2014)

Alvin Stardust was due to release his first studio album in 30 years at the time of his death.

Born Bernard Jewry in the East End of London, he grew up in Mansfield and signed his first record deal in 1961 as the front man of Shane Fenton and the Fentones.

He did not become famous until taking the name Alvin Stardust in 1973 and getting a deal with Magnet Records.

His distinctive quiff and hits including My Coo Ca Choo, Jealous Mind and I Feel Like Buddy Holly made him one of the biggest names in Britain’s rock’n’ roll and glam rock scenes.

He was such a household name that he was asked to front a road safety campaign in 1976 and later had success in musicals, including playing the Child Catcher in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang.

He married three times, with two sons and two daughters, and was still performing until a week before he died.

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Lynsey de Paul, 64, singer songwriter who represented Britain in the 1977 Eurovision Song Contest, October 1